Teacher Compensation: North Carolina

How Much To Pay A Teacher

I was a teacher. My dad retired a teacher. Many friends and family are still teachers. Further, other than that family, teachers were some of the most influential people in my life hell, one teacher is largely responsible for the man I am today.

And my kids have teachers. Lots of ’em.

I. Love. Teachers

So, when asked how much we should pay teachers I come back to this:

We should pay good teachers more than we pay bad teachers.

If The Teacher’s Union Represented NFL

If we used the same system of pay for professional sports as we do teachers, the Minnesota Vikings would still have Fran Tarkenton as their quarterback, Chuck Forman astheir running back, Fred Cox as their kicker and Alan Page would never have been a Supreme Court Justice in Minnesota.

Peyton Manning wouldn’t have a job.

We need to pay teachers in a way and manner that reflects their value – not their age.

I didn’t leave teaching because I wasn’t getting paid enough – I left teaching because I was never gonna get paid more than the shitty teachers I taught with.

Reward Merit – Punish Incompetence

There is no argument that will sway me from my belief that teaching ability is:

A: A skill with a normal distribution

B: Can be measured

That being said, you simply identify the best teachers and give them raises and bonuses. In parallel, you identify the worst teachers, give them smaller raises and/or fire them – replace them with better teachers.

Pure and simple.

Look around and catalog the highest paid professions and you will see a merit based system that does not allow for the inability to terminate employment and/or adjust compensation increments.

For example, I work in a field that is compensated very well. Yet I have no control over my boss’s desire to retain me day to day save me delivering on my assigned duties. I have no guarantee of a job, no years of experience protection in the event of layoffs. I am at “at will” employee and am highly motivated to excel at my job.

Greensboro, N.C. — In addition to seeking raises for teachers this year, Gov. Pat McCrory said Tuesday that he would like to overhaul their pay structure so the best teachers and those in competitive fields are compensated appropriately.

Addressing a group of state lawmakers at a Greensboro retreat hosted by the Hunt Institute, McCrory said he and education adviser Eric Guckian would roll out details of their plans in the coming weeks.

The governor said the initiatives are built on the framework of rewarding and respecting teachers and allowing them to advance professionally in the classroom.

Pretty close to what I am calling for; pay the best fire the worst.

And I didn’t even discuss paying a Sr. High math teacher more than a grade school phy ed teacher.

The problem is public employee unions in general, something even that Liberal icon FDR was opposed to. In the private sector, the power of the union is checked by reality — there’s only so much profit a union can secure for its members, and we saw with the GM 9-figure bailout when happens when those checks are ignored (“too big to fail!”). But the public sector is always “too big to fail” all the time, so the union ends up becoming a super-constituency, buying legislators outright and securing compensation in ways undreamed of by their private sector peers. It is corruption through-and-through.